Wastewater Treatment Facility. Environmental protection and reasonable use of natural resources, ecological security of the society are the main conditions of sustainable economic and social development.
Industrial production generates waste in solid, liquid, gaseous and mixed forms, influencing the environment, in the course of processing various natural resources.
The environment is degrading rapidly due to::
- land being reserved for mining waste;
- disruption of natural hydrological conditions in ground and surface waters;
- water abstraction of large territories or flooding of large areas;
- salination of soil;
- reduction of drinkable, ground and drain water;
- dust and gas in the air and harmful substances which come into contact with the human sphere (water, soil, air), such as compounds of heavy metals, sulfur, nitrogen, hydrocarbons etc.
The industry uses various treatment methods, which involves equipment insufficient for high degree of water purification due to constantly changing contaminant composition or inefficiency of the equipment.
Oil processing facilities generate waste water which contains crude oil and its derivatives, particulate matter, salts, demulsifiers and other contaminants, which are removed by mechanical, physical, chemical and biological treatment. However, the degree of purification does not satisfy regulatory requirements, since many facilities use obsolete treatment equipment.
Gravity purification of wastewater in open settling tanks is used in crude oil extraction. The degree of purification is low, besides, the open settling vessels take up much land and contaminate the environment. Open ground settling vessels are inefficient, so new thin-wall settling tanks, which are more efficient, have been developed. The main factors of their efficiency are the following design elements: the length and height of inclined surfaces, square area, location of the outlet. It should be noted that operation of filters with low grain loads is not automated and requires labor and time for regeneration.
All of this compels the search for methods to increase the efficiency of wastewater purification, among which is the vortex layer device (AVS). It is a chamber (tube) located inside an inducer of a rotating electromagnetic field. Ferromagnetic elements are placed inside the tube.
An analysis of the intensification factors in these devices (intensive mixing and dispersion of components, acoustic and electromagnetic effects, high local pressures and electrolysis) shows that some of these factors can influence the process of wastewater treatment:
- geometry and mode of the vortex layer, its hydrodynamic properties which ensure intensive mixing of the processed materials;
- electrochemical factors, electromagnetic treatment and activation of substances in the vortex;
- phase dispersion.